The Lesbian Romance Mythology Series Book 3 is out on Amazon, available on kindle and the kindle app (FREE if you have KindleUnlimited) and soon out in paperback along with book 1 and 2!

Throughout history people have sought after ways to gain immortality.
Some would stop at nothing to find and achieve this.
For the body to remain young and never to die . . .
Who, after all, wouldn’t want that?

Not Xian, who became immortal overnight after having mistakenly drunken an Elixir of Life, in ancient China. In fact, it is the last thing she could have wished for! After all, she has lost both her parents and her younger sister in a terrible accident. Ever since she is heartbroken and riddled with guilt. Why should she want to extend her suffering by living longer than necessary, let alone live forever?

Alas, as much as she tries to end her life, she finds time and again, she cannot. Her body is invincible and healthier than ever. A thousand years of searching for an antidote leads to nothing, including locating the mysterious Eight Immortals: legendary god-like beings who possess the secrets of nature.
One day she receives an optimistic clue: The Eight are about to gather to celebrate the Queen Mother, Xi Wang Mu’s birthday on the Western mountain paradise of Mount Kunlun. There, they will feast on the magical peaches which ripen every 3000 years so that they, once again, can extend their longevity.

Thus, Xian travels to Kunlun where the celebration in the Queen’s palace and her enchanting gardens are held.
Will one of the mysterious guests know of a way to end her immortality or will she have to live on until eternity with her painful memories?

Forgiving and loving yourself is often the hardest, but what if it’s the only way?

This is the third stand-alone story in The Lesbian Romance Mythology Series that covers lesser known myths from all around the world, retelling and reshaping them, and giving them lesbian twists.
Just as ‘The Immortal’ is based on Chinese myth and legends, the other two novellas, ‘The Cursed’ is based on an Irish myth and ‘The Taken’ on a Native-American tale.
In total there will be around 15 books covering many cultures around the world.
Collect them all!

A percentage of the sales of this book will go to : suicidepreventionlifeline.org

FREE WITH KINDLEUNLIMITED

I will be very happy if you could let me know what you thought of it by leaving me a review, thank you! One sentence is all it takes and the more reviews, the more exposure the book gets. Tell your friends and feel free to share (:

For those of you enjoy my mythology stories you’ll be pleased to know that, after a slight delay, I have finally written “THE END” for the third book in the series. These are all stand alone stories so can be enjoyed separately, as you may already know, and cover all cultures around the world. Every book is based on a myth of long ago, which I rewrote completely and added strong lesbian main characters.

Book 3 is ‘The Immortal’ and will be published at the beginning of April, and you’ll be the first to know the exact date, so watch your inbox!I am not a commercial writer and don’t write what the public wants or needs. That has never been my goal. First and foremost I write for myself, second I hope to stir something in people: make them think, make them feel, and at best make them act differently towards themselves and others. With more understanding, kindness, compassion and love. Through my stories I hope to reach other people’s minds and hearts. My characters all go through certain changes; changes I think might reflect the reader’s own lives, or at least they will be able to empathise, if not relate.

‘The Immortal’ has been one of the hardest stories for me to write to date. ‘Quarterling’ was another one which was at times difficult for me emotionally as it deals with themes close to my heart as well. It can delay writing greatly as I need to muster a lot of inner strength and motivation to keep going. I often wonder why I do it, especially since I know not many people buy these stories as they don’t have violence, murder, evil or fighting, let alone much magic, or even a lot of romance or erotica, as is so common in other works in my field. But going on I must until I reach the finish line. This project is very much a labour of love. Stories want to be written at certain times in a writer’s life. They come to us when we are ready to tell them. When we are capable of telling them. For me, they don’t leave me alone until it’s done and I can release my breath and send them out into the world.
Writing is a lonely profession whereby one can only hope that the final story will bring some joy and hope to those that read it.
Normally I write Fantasy and I have much more space for creativity and can unleash my imagination and have more fun. With this series I have to stick to certain historical and cultural correct facts, so these stories require a lot more research than any of my other books. ‘The Immortal’ also covers subjects that I have experienced personally. The main subjects are loss, grief and guilt. In more than one way writing this story has been therapeutic for me and it has made me work through my own
But don’t despair, this story is not all doom and gloom and dark as you might think now. It’s also light at times, with a bit of sarcasm and down to earthness, yet spiritual, and full of hope. I will be giving snippets over the coming days on my social media and will run a give-away so you can be among the first to read it!

I will also be publishing the first three books in a discounted book bundle. Stay tuned.

From now on I will be featuring a Book of the Month! There will be plenty of opportunities to discus the book, ask the author (me) questions about that book, plot, characters, anything! Plus a free contest with a prize! Visit the page: https://natasjahellenthal.wordpress.com/book-of-the-month/ and join in the fun!

So, for the first Book of the Month I have chosen ‘The Queen’s Curse’ since that was my debut novel and to celebrate it recently hit the 100 review mark on Amazon!

For the free contest all you have to do is submit a quote from that book. Whoever submits a quote from The Queen’s Curse that gets the most upvotes before the end of March wins.

What do you win? An e-version of my new book ‘The Immortal’ to be expected at the end of this month or beginning of April at the latest. It’s a bit of a secret as I have not announced anything about the book yet! The book cover and synopsis will be revealed here soon, so make sure you follow me here to get the update in your inbox, or sign up to my newsletter (go to “Sign Up” in the main menu)!

Trapped between the city walls of Traumermoure and his loyalty to the girl, Aigle must find a way to save a human he hardly knows by entering her dreams . . .

‘City of Dreams’ is a YA stand-alone fantasy novella that captures the enchantment of the world of art and dreams, and the power of friendship and hope.

“This is a brilliantly woven fantasy that will leave you thinking about the ending long past the last turn of the page. She raises many interesting points about the origins of art which will have you analysing the story.The characters are enchanting, the setting brilliantly visual and the author’s talents to keep your eyes glued to the page are mind-blowing. Loved it!” –Anari

You may or may not know thatThe Comyenti Series,from which ‘Quarterling’ is a part of being a spin-off novel, is a fantasy series that as a whole is really close to my heart. It always has been, more so than all my other books. Being a huge animal lover, vegan, and empath myself writing about an alien humanoid species, who are all mind-speaking empaths, and have all these amazing animal abilities, but with their own weaknesses comes almost natural to me. That probably shouldn’t come as a surprise for those that know me. Especially since most of my life I have almost felt like an alien on this world myself! Being sensitive to noise, bright lights, strong smells, fainting in crowds, wanting different things in life than others my age, reading different books, being vegan, and lesbian! I am also quite a private person, so I guess not many people know much about me at all, hence why I started this newsletter in the first place.

But, I digress. All of the main characters certainly feel like different parts of me I wanted to explore. Especially Sula Comyenti who started it all in book 1: ‘Call Off the Search’ which was originally called ‘Small Sacrifice’, and who has been with me from the start shaping the story and series with me, always insisted in getting heard. For a writer it is almost impossible not to listen to those voices in your head! They won’t leave you alone until you write their stories down. No, you are not insane, you are a writer. That is our excuse, at least.
Still, I just love writing every book that is either part of the series or a spin-off story such as Quarterlingis, so I really don’t mind. Besides, Sula is always great company.It became clear to me though that after writing the first two books the characters had much more to say and to do before I started writing book three. I knew I just couldn’t fit it all in without losing the main thread of the book and for the readers to lose the plot. These characters, once an adult, deserved each their own story, their own novel. And that is what I am doing. That is the plan at least. Sula has five children so they all get their own book, some even more than one. There are three so far and a fourth is in the making!

There is ‘Chained Freedom’ (Free download here: https://www.amazon.com/Chained-Freedom-Comyenti-Natasja-Hellenthal-ebook/dp/B00IK4OWXE/ )in which Fay had a brief appearance, but she was only really a side-character like in book 1 and 2, not a main one. So she kept insisting on telling her own story! Her voice grew stronger and louder. I had already told Aigle’s story in ‘City of Dreams’, or at least one of his stories, and I felt it was time for Sula’s first born Fay to really tell hers.

Beside it being a coming of age story and one of unrequited love, and just about being young leaving home for the first time, I have been toying with the idea of writing some of my own experiences down. The things I have witnessed whilst living in Norway, Wales, and the South of France especially have always stayed with me. The animal cruelty and accidents whilst I was out hiking mostly. I wanted to share these experiences with my readers and what better way than through a story? They say, write what you know, and that is what I have always done. I have changed the facts around slightly as in my case I was mostly too late, but not always. Once I did save a nearly drowned sheep from a freezing, roaring river, and one bird out of a football net, but found another sheep dead with her head stuck in a fence and other sheep washed ashore. These images never left me. The rat I saved two years ago still lives with me as I couldn’t find a surrogate mother. Fay reminds me slightly of myself when I was seventeen. Full of big ideas, hopes and dreams, and that life isn’t always how we plan it to be. Love isn’t either. It can come in various forms and may not be what we imagined it to be.
Fay started to tell me her story from the time she left home. It was easy to let her live some of my own experiences and see what she would have done, with or without her super powers. And how I would wish I had those powers often! But then again, she is restricted in some ways. How? Well, you will just have to read the story.

Speaking of superpowers though, especially a female superhero, saving animals, not people this time, was needed, desperately I felt. I have researched but only found one or two other books with a vegan superhero, but they were all for children… Why, I wonder are animals always associated with children or children’s stories? Don’t adults love animals? Do we outgrow them and their cuteness? Don’t we want to read about their happy ending? Adults love their pets, but often can’t extend it to other animals. Most don’t want to think about the suffering, the exploited animals, at least not enough to want to save them. Vegans do. Luckily. Thus a story was born. Fay was going to be a superhero for the animals with an older audience, okay young adults more precisely as she herself is only seventeen when the story starts, but still, it’s a start. I do hope to reach a broad audience with Fay’s story. That is why there are many more subjects thrown in: coming of age, parents, adventure, romance and a touch of magic.

Well, I won’t ramble on too much as this should just be a little post about what made me want to write ‘Quarterling’. Whilst writing I did try to have an audience in mind. I can imagine other vegans want a hero they can relate to or look up to, so it is for them to have a story to feel at home in without too much violence or visual content. But is still is a story about animal activism and what we can all do, or can’t and about hoping to change people, but how? And if we can, should we and to what ends? There are many questions of a deeper nature. Of right and wrong, of grey areas, and that even if we have certain powers there are even more powerful forces at work we cannot always control, and we find ourselves powerless. It’s a story of wanting to save the world, of change both in and outside of us, of being different and finding our way in the world, of acceptance, of having responsibilities and what it means to be an adult. And I also hope to reach those hearts that haven’t quite made compassionate choices yet. For those who say they love animals. Who knows what changes they will make? One can always hope.

Read more about my inspiration and need for wanting to write this story in the Afterword in ‘Quarterling’, now ready for pre-order here:

Excerpt

‘Fay, there is no need to lie to me, you know. I have observed you and seen what you can do. You are clearly not from Bhan. If you were, your kind would have surely taken over from the humans.’
‘Why would you say that and what exactly have you see me doing? Wait, it’s from around the time of the market day I have sensed your presence, isn’t it? What did you see me do?’
‘Enough to know that you act as if these animals are your responsibility, but they are not.’
Fay’s eyes widened and she was numb for a moment as if shocked to hear that. ‘Then whose? If it wasn’t for me they would all still be suffering or dead by now!’
‘It’s not for you to decide, to interfere.’
‘What? So, you’re saying that if you see an injustice done to another soul, or an injured creature, you walk away from it? What if it had been members of your own kind caged in that market?’
‘We’ve never been captured,’ Zemandu answered calmly, unaffected.
‘Perhaps you should be so you know what it’s like.’
‘And you do?’
‘Even if I didn’t I would still care. It’s called having a heart. Besides, all of us carry the painful memories of our ancestors in us. It’s enough for us to feel empathy for other species, because we were treated not too dissimilarly. My kind were trapped, not for food, but as curiosities, and when humans couldn’t get what they wanted from us, killed. We were seen as a threat and menace to humanity, not allowed to live side by side with them like you are.’
‘You can fly, you are immensely strong, you can make fires like I can, and you can communicate with all these anima—’ ‘Argh,’ Fay grunted. She had seen all that? How had she let this happen?
‘No need to be shy or worried. I won’t tell anybody. There is always one dominant species on any planet. What, you didn’t think this was the only habitable planet in the entire universe, did you?’